I'm going to do my best to make it. I really want to, but need to watch the financial situation this month. I can let you know next month for sure if that's ok.
Mike.
Posts by Bendrr
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331E-Man and HL are coming to the USA!!!!
by Joyzabel inenglishman and her ladyship will be visiting the usa and we are happy to announce a bbq for them at our place.
so mark your calanders!!.
saturday, november 1, 2003 2 pm = ?
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9
NOTE On American No Call List
by Francois in.
i noticed someone here the other day making a discouraging remark about the subject no call list to the effect that it was a waste of time because advertising calls were still coming through.
i don't remember who was making these ill-informed remarks.. the american no call list does not go into effect until october 1, 2003. best to be fully informed before blasting a good idea out of the saddle.. frank
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Bendrr
Glad you brought the subject up Franc. I'd like to add my own $.02.
First of all, we should not assume that this national do-not-call list will be respected by all telemarketing companies. They take care to make sure their number doesn't show up on your caller ID and in the event you or I are on the list it's going to be hard to get any kind of positive ID out of the telemarketer on the phone when they call. Therefore it will be difficult to report violators.
Next thing to consider is how they get your number in the first place. Are you listed in the phone book? Get an unlisted number if you are. Now that you have an unlisted number, can they still get it? Yes. How careful are you about giving out your phone number and address? Do you have discount cards at the stores you shop at, such as Kroger or CVS? When you signed up for that card, you gave them your phone number and address. I've had both stores tell me "oh don't worry, we don't give that information to anyone else", and I didn't believe them for one second. Why should I? Other stores immediately ask for your phone number any time you make a purchase. I drive Circuit City and Autozone crazy when I don't give it to them. Do they really need it? No. You don't have to give it to them for warranty purposes, that's what your receipt is for. If they aren't delivering the product to your home, or you're not signing up for their store credit, they don't need your phone number and address and can not require them.
Look through your wallet or purse right now. How many store discount cards do you have in there? Guess what? You can sign on the national dnc list all you want, but all you had to do in the first place is not give the number out in the first place. Unless of course, as I said before, you're signing up for credit or having your purchase delivered.
I get very little junk mail. When I had a land-line phone I got very few telemarketing calls. Why? Because I treated my phone number and address as private information. Sure I didn't get the little discounts at Kroger, but Kroger didn't get to sell my info to mass-mailers and telemarketers. Now that I've got a cell-phone I get zero telemarketing calls whatsoever.
Now here's a question that some of you may be able to answer for me. I've heard on the news that telemarketers are starting to call peoples' cell phones. I don't give that number out period except to my utility providers. I don't completely trust them to not sell that info to telemarketers. So can I expect to receive telemarketing calls on my cell phone now?
Mike.
p.s. Refusing to give out your phone number and address can get interesting sometimes. I once had a salesperson at Best Buy snidely remark "are you on the run?". A cashier at Circuit City asked for my phone number and I refused to give it, then when I went to pay by Visa she asked for my ID. I did let her see it but she actually grabbed it out of my hand and started to type my address in to the computer. I told her not to and ended up having to call a manager to prevent her from entering the info. I've had store employees get really pushy and even rude when I wouldn't give out my info. My response to all of them has been "I'm profit, you're overhead, I don't give out that information". Radio Shack absolutely HATED me!
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74
Which songs do you members over 40...and then members under 40
by berylblue inwhich songs do all of you over 40 feel are must-listens for those of every age?
conversely, i really would like to know what the younger ones here think are the must -hear songs for every generation.
without my daughters in my life, i don't get to hear the better offerings of the new artists.
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Bendrr
I turned my 10-year-old nephew on to Jimmy Buffett. I think he's still got my Buffett Greatest Hits CD. He also like Frank Zappa. "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult is an anthem to Josh.
I can't really narrow it down to any specific songs as far as must-listens. If I were to list must-listens for kids today who don't know much past the noise on top-40 radio and MTV, well.......
(in no particular order) Fleetwood Mac, Old Ozzy like Black Sabbath and his stuff from the 80's, early Metallica, Duran Duran, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joan Jett, The Beatles, Elvis, The Stones, Charlie Daniels, Hank Jr., Credence Clearwater Revival.....
Mike.
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Were you psychologically abused into going to meetings/service ???
by run dont walk inwe have all read and watched so many of the child abuse / sexual abuse scandals, and it makes us all sick to our stomachs, i want to touch on a different kind of abuse, i am not trying to draw a parellel between child abuse and being abused.
the abuse i am talking about is just as bad but so different.
i remember growing up a jw, basically having no choice, whether i wanted to go to the meetings or in service, and i always resented this in my parents.
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Bendrr
Oh it's absolutely abuse. The way so many JW parents raise their kids.......it's sickening.
I had no choice, go to every meeting, comment at every meeting, go out in service and talk at the doors. My stepdad's favorite line was "I know how you are". Thursday afternoon had to be the worst. All that studying on top of homework. And of course when done, I had to be grilled by my stepdad about whether I'd really studied everything.
Me: "I'm finished"
Him: "Everything?" (always in a stern tone and with a mean look)
Me: "Yes sir"
He'd then list every item to be studied, implying I'd skipped something, to which I'd answer "yes sir" (the only thing I was allowed to say in times like that). Then it would move to whether I'd looked up every scripture. "Yes sir". At the time I was genuinely trying to be the best little Witness I could. After the interrogation, he'd give me this hateful look and say "mmmm-hmmmm....well I know how you are!" and stomp out of the room. And I'd have to sit there feeling guilty at being accused of lying.
The family Watchtower study wasn't any better. Invariably it would always turn into a "gripe session" about me that would last for at least two hours. I'd have to sit there and be told everything I'd done wrong in the past five years or so. Five years you say? No exaggeration. I can remember at age 16 being berated for something that had happened in the fifth grade I didn't even remember.
And then they wondered why I left.
Assholes!
Mike.
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Your Favorite Colloquialisms?
by Frannie Banannie inthought we could all share a few of our favorites...here's one i'm fond of....
"chaps my grits" is a southern colloquialism, referring.
to.....well, i guess you better know what grits is.
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Bendrr
lol!
Her ass looks like two rhinos fighting under a blanket.
Slicker than owl sh*t. (not sure if owl poo is any slicker than other poo)
Happy as a pig in sh*t.
Cute as a sackful of puppies.
I picked up a couple from my stepdad. He used to call a messy dirt road after rain a "loblolly". Or he had to pee so bad his eye teeth were floating.
Referring to someone's car that has a lot of problems: "you need to take the radiator cap off and drive something else up under it." A car with the floorpan rusted through is a "Fred Flintstone". An older Chrysler product in a bad state of disrepair is an "Al Bundy".
My manager's favorite with me is "you're so deaf you couldn't hear a bulldozer going thru a nitroglycerin factory".
And a few others I thought of.......
She'd make a freight train take a dirt road.
She'd make a pit bull climb a plate glass window.
I'm gonna hit you so hard your babies will be born naked.
She'd stop an eight day clock.
I'll see y'all again second Wednesday of next week.
Mike
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Should sexual predators be released into society?
by Kenneson inmy question stems from a case arising in contra coast county, california.
the state wants to release a sexually violent predator into the community of martinez, under a strict release program, including monitoring and therapy.
cary verse is a jehovah's witness and wants to live in the neighborhood of a kingdom hall.
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Bendrr
Should they be released? No! Unfortunately, our society doesn't work that way. If the jackass wasn't sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, then sooner or later the time's gonna come when he gets out. I say either change the sentencing laws so as to keep them locked up, or require castration.
Remember, something could "happen" to him one night. What with crime as bad as it is everywhere, who knows when someone's going to break into your house.....I'll stop there.
Mike.
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Run, Sir Clark, Run...
by teejay inif he runs, he will be the most qualified of all those who now aspire to the office in 2004. if he runs, general wesley k. clark (ret.
) will be the second most qualified person to ever seek the presidency of the u.s. over the past 100 years, second only to the great william jefferson cliinton.
what follows are excerpts from an article about him in a recent esquire magazine.. he is a remarkable man with an unassailable integrity -- the kind of man that has all the little bushites shaking in their boots.
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Bendrr
Please please please tell me you're not a Clintax fan!
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Subway Commercials
by blaid inis any one else getting pissed of at subway lately?
with their latest tv ad that stereotypes artists, anbd their wanna be r&b radio commercial, im tempted to blow all of them up!
i cant stand stereotypes, and the artist one hits clsoe to home for me.
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Bendrr
Subway just plain sucks. (IMO) Or maybe it's just the ones around here. The bread is stale and tough, the meat is used sparingly, the lettuce is wilted, the rest of the toppings are mediocre at best. The whole problem with Subway is that their food isn't any good anymore. At least around here. Used to be I could go in there and the bread was fresh and soft instead of stale and tough. The toppings were fresh and they didn't skimp on the meat. And the way they put the sandwiches together now annoys me to no end. Some minimum-wage slob throws the toppings towards the sandwich and then folds it together, squeezing most of them out in the process.
Mike, who is just tired of fast food in general.
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Husband Shopping!
by simplesally init is laid out in five floors with the men increasing in positive attributes as you ascend.
you're only allowed in once.
once you open the door to any floor you must choose a man from that floor.
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Bendrr
Well no wonder I'm still single! I didn't know about that store, somebody stuck me in the pawn shop just down the street. (I'm the good-looking blonde guy in between the jewelry display and the handgun display)
Mike.
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(unaided by God)Things we can not do!
by Deputy Dog inin the world today (especially in america) we believe that we can do what ever we want or will to do, but god still rules the universe, and according to his word there are some things that we can not do.
unless god wills!
i thought i might list a few things that (unaided by or apart from god) we can not do.
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Bendrr
I disagree.
We can indeed "do good". There's far too many agnostics, atheists, and various other non-christians out there proving you wrong every day.
The question is, whose god do we follow? That's the whole issue I and many others here have with religion. The Bible is an instrument of control used by men to tell other men how to live, and usually the subject of money comes in there somewhere too.
Mike.